Fabric Manufacturers Quality
#21
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Illinois
Posts: 9,018
..."according to the internet ". Last sentence of your first paragraph. And, we know that all on the net is true...as per a tv commercial I saw once! Just visit a LQS in your area, a JAF or hancocks and touch the fabric ........and soak in the beauty of the eye candy.......then decide....Do you have a specific pattern you would like to do for your mom?
#23
Such great advice!! This is the second post in as many weeks by a brand new quilter who is looking for cyber opinions on "quality" manufacturers as if they were trying to find the "best" restaurant in town by checking online reviews. Like so many other things in quilting, the best answer is...it depends.
Depends on what line of the manufacturer, when it was produced, what dyes were used, what greige goods were used, where it was produced, and who knows how many other factors. It all makes a difference and the only way you can tell that difference is by touch. There are simply too many variables involved even within a single manufacturer.
If I were just starting out instead of 40+ years into this sport, I would still make sure I got 'hands on' with all the fabrics I intended to purchase for my first few quilts. After that, you can base decisions on your own experience...tempered by input from others perhaps, but the key is self knowledge. What is 'quality' to you will very often not be the same as 'quality' to someone else.
Depends on what line of the manufacturer, when it was produced, what dyes were used, what greige goods were used, where it was produced, and who knows how many other factors. It all makes a difference and the only way you can tell that difference is by touch. There are simply too many variables involved even within a single manufacturer.
If I were just starting out instead of 40+ years into this sport, I would still make sure I got 'hands on' with all the fabrics I intended to purchase for my first few quilts. After that, you can base decisions on your own experience...tempered by input from others perhaps, but the key is self knowledge. What is 'quality' to you will very often not be the same as 'quality' to someone else.
#25
Super Member
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Middlebury, IN
Posts: 1,484
Keep in mind that the "hand" of the fabric can vary from person to person so it depends on what you think about it. I've had good luck with Northcott, Bentartex and In the Beginning fabrics. I don't buy much at JoAnn's any more, I just think the quality has gone down in their cottons. Luckily I have lots of LQS's around so I only order online once in awhile. Check with your LQS to see if they have groups or guilds that you could talk to about your questions as well.
#27
Super Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: SoCal
Posts: 1,813
....hmmmm, just wondering...I have personally not really deeply analyzed fabric content, mfgr vs. mfgr., I only look, feel, if I like its design, color, or whatever draws my eye to it initially will determine my purchasing or not....but now after reading all this above comments I'm being to wondering if, like thread, the deeper the color concentration, the heftier it feels. Someone mentioned the same mfgr line with white background was stretchier than one with colored bkgrnd....wonder if that has to do with dye applications.....ok deep thinking time is now over.....back to the fun part - cutting and sewing back together differently!
#28
AMB solids, made by Clothworks, yes. Despite their slightly higher thread count (74x78), I found AMB solids to have no softer a hand and no less raveling on the cut edges than Kona or the other cotton braodcloth solids with a 60x60 thread count. Hope that helps.
#29
I too, was wondering about the color making a difference in the same line! Last night I was cutting some red Kona and I thought my blade was dull. I could not find my blades, it was late, and did not want to start digging. I still wanted to cut a couple other fabrics to make a quick block. I started cutting some Kaffe prints. They cut like butter, same blade. Maybe there is something there that needs more investigation!!
#30
We all hope you will post your quilt when you get started.
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